Westbrook schools suffer $100,000 budget cut

WESTBROOK  New computers, curriculum coordinators and a faculty position fell victim this week to a $100,000 reduction in the 2003-04 school budget.

Walt Platteborze

Published
12:00 am EDT, Saturday, September 13, 2003

The Board of Education made the cuts as recommended by Superintendent of Schools John Sullivan.

They were in response to the $17.5 million school budget approved Aug. 26 in a third referendum vote.

In reducing the budget to the voter-approved amount, the Finance Board reduced the school-spending request by an additional $100,000 to about $10.3 million.

Sullivans approved plan for meeting that reduction called for eliminating five curriculum-coordinator positions, three newly created coordinator positions and one middle school team leader.

Teachers who handled those tasks received extra pay of about $4,000, Sullivan said.

By eliminating them, the board saves about $36,000.

Sullivan said school administrators will handle the curriculum coordinators tasks this school year.

He added that the fairly new coordinator system had not worked well and that he planned to restructure it for succeeding years.

The planned purchase of computers will be shelved for this year for a budget savings of $42,000, Sullivan said.

The administration also was able to reduce the amount from local taxes needed for the teacher salary account by $12,000 because a federal reading program grant came in higher than expected.

Filling out the $100,000 reduction was $10,000 taken from the heating oil account.

Finance Manager Barbara Guay said the schools ended last year with some fuel left over and officials decided that less could be ordered for this year.

Even with the reductions, Sullivan said the schools ended up with a budget that "maintains programs and personnel at current levels" and "doesnt hurt the kids in the short run." However, he said that any unforeseen major expenses, such as children with special needs transfer into the district, would cause problems.

Board Chairman Daniel Cyr said the final budget is the result of a "hard process" dictated by voters who wanted to hold down expenditures.

He said the fact that the budget was shaped by the will of townspeople "even takes some of the responsibility (for it) off us."

The Finance Board reduced the school boards spending request by more than $200,000 before and during the budget referendum process.

The budget finally approved by voters kept the tax rate at 18.96 mills.